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SLAVERY QUESTION. 


SPEECH 


: ,y, 

EDWARD WADE, OF OHIO, 


[N THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, 


AUGUST 2, 185 6. 






WASHINGTON, D. C. 

3 UELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS 


1856. 









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SPEECH OF MR. WADE 




The House being in committee of the ^vhole 
on the state of the union— 

Mr. WADE said : I propose to say a few things 
on the old theme of which, we have all heard so 
much—the subject of slavery and the threatened 
dissolution of the union. These two seem to 
constitute a sort of duality—^a “ two in one ” sub¬ 
ject, as inseparable as the Siamese twins. 

A part of what I have to say, will be with the 
intention of calling the minds of gentlemen, to 
the purer and better days of the republic—to 
contrast those days with the present, and try if 
w'e can search out the old landmarks of consti¬ 
tutional liberty, and from these, to determine how 
far we may have wandered into the domains of 
despotism. At this day, and under the perils to 
w'hich liberty and the union are exposed, I be¬ 
lieve this to be the most acceptable service which 
a patriot can render to his country. 

I desire sir if it be possible, to reproduce be¬ 
fore the people of this day, the living realities of 
those purer and better days, when the union and 
the constitution had their birth. For, sir, it is in 
the spirit only in which the union and constitution 
were organized, that they can be preserved, if 
preserved at all. If the ethical principles in 
which the union and constitution were brought 
into being, were the principles of despotism, of 
human bondage—if the spirit which presided at 
their birth, was the cold and sunless spirit of a 
crushing despotism, then in the perpetuity of 
that fell spirit, will rest their only peace and per¬ 
manency. But if, on the other hand, the union 
and constitution were produced from the gentle, 
genial spirit of liberty, and the changeless natu¬ 
ral equality of human rights, then in the same 
spirit, must they be administered, to be perpetu¬ 
ated. No self-evident axiom, no demonstration 
in mathematics, is more convincing than this. 
Gentlemen may tell us—they do tell us—that, in 
order to preserve the union, we must throw the 
rein over the neck of despotism—must yield to 
the necessities or to the caprices of slavery. Sir, 
doing this, w a dissolution of the union. Its life 
expires the moment we yield to this senseless 
)clamor. Sir, in order to preserve the union, ne¬ 


cessity is laid upon us, to go back to the birth of 
the union prior to the constitution, and to catch 
and hold the spirit which animated those great 
and good men, and apply it now, and for all time, 
to the administration of the government. In no 
other way, sir, is it possible to preserve this gov¬ 
ernment. It will bear no other treatment, more 
than man’s natural body can bear strychine 
or arsenic. 

Sir, if the constitution and union are to be 
used merely as instruments for propagating and 
making perpetual human bondage, they cannot 
be preserved—neither is it desirable that they 
should. They were designed by their framers, 
to be instruments of perpetual good; and to 
change them from this their original design, into 
instruments of ceaseless evil, is in itself to destroy 
them; and the obligation to obey them ceases, 
when their nature is changed by usurpation or 
corruption. 

I do not say these things by way of menace, 
but as simple, fundamental truths, as necessary 
in the science of government, as are axioms in 
mathematics. But, sir, the preservation of this 
union and constitution, does not lie in force, but 
in the preparation of the hearts of the people. 
There is no better preparation for these, than a 
revival of that sentiment of veneration and affec¬ 
tion for our fathers, which in individuals, is the 
highest possible development of a great charac¬ 
ter. Patriotism itself, that first duty of the citizen, 
may be said to consist in the sum of our indi¬ 
vidual affections and veneration for our fathers. 
That sum of individual sentiments, constitutes 
the naj^onal sentiment of patriotism. To that 
spirit I appeal for the adjustment of all our in¬ 
ternal troubles, both political and sectional. In 
that spirit, I shall endeavor to retrace our steps 
to the period when our constitution and union 
were brought into existence, and to persuade my 
fellow members to accompany me in the sarnie 
spirit, to a short communing with the mighty 
dead. In that spirit alone, can we calm the agi¬ 
tated waters of political strife, either in this Hall 
or among our constituents. 

To this end, I shall exhibit the fruits of their 


I 





6 


was an irrepressible love of personal freedom, as i using it, viz : as an instrument for the extension 
one of the inherent, indestructible rights of all j of slavery into free territory, and as a justifica- 
human beings unconvicted of crime, is proved, tion of their pretence, that the constitution 
And, sip? I declare it here, as the truth of history, prio vigore, carries slavery into all the territories 


that so long as this great truth was cherished, 
and practically recognised by the federal gov¬ 
ernment, in all matters within the legitimate cog¬ 
nizance of its several departments, there was 
never manifested any dangerous indication of dis¬ 
loyalty to the union. No, sir, disunion is the whelp 
of the spirit of slavery propagandism; and since 
that evil spirit has possessed southern politicians, 
and their alliance has been perfected with our 
northern slave democracy, there has been no 
peace for the union; and, in the providence of 
God, there never can, and never ought to be, any 
“peace to the wicked,” either in union, or out 
of it. 

But, Mr. Chairman, having proven the allied 
forces of the slavery propagandists of the south 
and the slave democracy of the free states to be 
hostile to the only enduring element of union, 
liberty! as received and understood by our fathers 
“ in the times that tried men’s souls,” I proceed 
now to show, that the same allies are equally hos¬ 
tile to the same essential element of union under 
the constitution of the United States. Mr. Chair¬ 
man, I first call the attention of the committee to 
the preamble to the constitution. Hear it: 

“ We, the people of the United States, in order 
‘ to form a more perfect union, establish justice, 

' insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
'■ mon defence, promote the general welfare, and 
‘ secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
‘ our posterity, do ordain and establish this con- 
‘ stitution for the United States of America.” 

There, Mr. Chairman, whoever, after reading 
that declaration of the objects and purposes for 
which the constitution of the United States, was 
framed and adopted by the people of the United 
States, shall assert, that the extension and per¬ 
petuation of slavery, or the exaltation of slavery 
into a “ domestic institution,” to be placed side 
by side W'ith the institution of husband and wife, 
parent and child, &c., as is attempted by the 
, slave democracy in and hy the Nebraska bill, 
and as is asserted in every alternate breath, by 
each slaveholder and slave democrat in congress 
and out of it—1 say, sir, every such person 
charges the men who framed, and the people who 
adopted the constitution, with deliberate and 
wicked lyino, or else with a stupidity so nearly 
absolute, as to relieve them of moral responsi¬ 
bility for what they did assert. 

Our fathers set this preamble at the threshold 
of the constitution as a lamp, as well to dispel 
darkness from the minds of those who should 
attempt to enter this great edifice of free gov¬ 
ernment, as to cast its cheering light through all 
the compartments of that edifice. They did it, 
that whoever might hope to find in the constitu¬ 
tion a guarantee of slavery, or any form of in¬ 
justice, might, at the commencement of his search, 
meet only—“ liberty and justice.” It was done 
to take all excuse from that perverse ingenuity 
which, from the infirmities of human language, 
might attempt to use the constitution as the slave 
democracy in congress, and out of it, are now 


of the United States ; or that slavery and liberty 
are twin brethren, and must be brought, as such, 
simultaneously into the union, or not be born at 
all; or that other piece of stupidity or perverse¬ 
ness, that the territories are the common j)roperty 
of the people of all the states, and therefore the 
slaveholder has the right to enter all or any of 
the federal territories with his slaves—or that 
other, and last for the present, assertion, that 
there exists a certain equality among all the states, 
which authorizes the people of the slave states to 
take their slaves, as property, into the territories, 
but does not authorize the people of the free 
states to enter the territories and exclude slavery 
therefrom—a sort of equality of states, which 
warrants the establishment of nuisances and so¬ 
cial curses in the territories, but takes from the 
people the power to abate such nuisances. 

Another design of the preamble to the consti¬ 
tution was, to enable the people to detect that 
class of demagogues who, under the cloak of de¬ 
votion to the union, are trying to force or cheat 
the people of the free states, into “ carrying the 
flag and keeping step to the music of the coffle 
gang,” as it pursues its dead march from the old 
and slave-cursed states, to make its halt in the 
now free territories, there to leave forever the 
mildew of its blighting nature. 

But the preamble to the constitution, is not 
the constitution. This must speak with its own 
voice, but it must nevertheless speak in the spirit 
of its-preamble, otherwise both preamble and 
constitution are a hypocrisy and a delusion. The 
constitution as framed by the convention, gave 
no power to any department of the government 
to make a slave of a free man, or to convert free 
territory into slave territory. The federal gov¬ 
ernment, under the constitution, prior to the 
amendments, was utterly impotent, either to make 
or hold a slave, or to give authority to others to 
make or hold slaves. The unamended constitu¬ 
tion was precisely that, neither more nor less 
than its authors made it; but they did not make 
it a slave constitution. They did not omit a clause 
in that instrument, authorizing _slaveholding by 
accident, but by design. Mr. Madison, one of the 
chief artificers of the constitution, assures us that 
they did not intend that the constitution should 
even disclose the shameful fact, that there existed 
such a crime and disgrace in the United States as 
slavery. 

But to “make assurance doubly sure,” and as 
it were, “ to take a bond of fate,” those great 
and good men, for the vindication of their own 
fame as the friends of liberty and justice, and 
jealous lest, through the degeneracy of after times, 
and almost as if foreseeing the apostacy of the 
slave democracy of the present day, immedi¬ 
ately on the adoption of the constitution, as 
framed by the convention, the first congress as¬ 
sembled under it, proposed divers amendments, 
the chief objects of which were, to negative all 
power in congress, which bad men might claim 
to be implied in the original constitution, to make 







7 


oppressive laws, or to wrest from men their in¬ 
alienable rights. 

First amendment. —“ Congress shall make no 
‘ law abridging the freedom of speech or of the 
I ‘ press, or the right of the people peaceably to 
‘ assemble and to petition the government for a 
‘ redress of grievances.” 

I Mr. Chairman, it is very true that this prohibi¬ 
tion against violating the freedom of speech and 
the press by congress, does not affect the states 
I as such, and consequently the freedom of speech 
and the press in the states, must depend on state 
■ laAvs ; but there is not a slave state in the union, 
with the exception perhaps of Delaware, where this 
great fundamental element of civilUhei'ty ^ either prac- 
' tically, by licensed mobbing or by state laws, is not 
i utterly annihilated. The princijtle of slavery, viz : 
j property in man, will not bear discussion; neither 
j dare it “ come to the light, lest its deeds should 
• be reproved.” But the discussion of the right to 
J property in “ the beasts of the field and the fowls 
j of the air,” in the earth, and the products of the 

i earth, the air and the waters, are as freely dis¬ 
cussed in slave states as in free states. The reason 
for this is too obvious to require illustration. 
But apropos of this, we have all heard of the 
celebrated laws of the bogus legislature of 
I Kansas for the protection of property in slaves. 
( If not, the masterly speech of my friend from In- 
! diana [Mr. Colfax] will throw abundant light on 
. \he%e pandects of Atchison, Stringfellow, Shan¬ 
non, and company. But super-fiendish as are 
these infamous acts in the form of laws, against 
the great right of free speech and a free press, 

! we have nevertheless, the assurance of a senator 
; from Mississippi, [Mr. Adams,] that the Kansas 
laws are by no means peculiar; but are such as 
are usual and necessary in the slave states. In 
alluding to these Kansas laws, he says: 

“ They have passed just such laws—not per- 
‘ haps exactly in the language, but substantially 
! ‘ the same—as the states maintaining theinstitu- 
! ‘ tion of slavery have found it necessary to pass 
‘ to sustain their rights. In the state in which I 
‘ have the honor to live, we prohibit the circula- 
j ‘ tion of incendiary pamphlets, as they are called, 

[ ‘ which mean nothing more nor less than the 
‘ ‘ language objected to and provided against in 
‘ this act. Men are punished for it; so in nearly 
‘ all the states where the institution of slavery 
'■ exists. The mistake which is made here is in 
‘ reference to the qoestion which I have already 
‘ called to the attention of the senate. These 
‘ people have acted in conformity with the pro- 
‘ visions of the act of congress.” 

Now sir, admitting that slave states, for the 
support of the barbarism of slavery, Avithin their 
own limits, may enact laws thus crwel, unjust, 
and disgusting; still this legislative assembly of 
Kansas, is but the creature of which the congress 
of the United States is the creator —the mere in¬ 
strument, made by congress, to make and exe¬ 
cute laws for Kansas, in tlie place of, and for 
congress. Therefore, it can pass no laAv which 
congress, by the constitution of the United States, 
is prohibited from passing. Hence all these beastly, 
disgusting, and infamous slave laws of Kansas, 
are a nullity and a nuisance, by the express pro¬ 


visions of the first article of the amendments to the 
constitution of the United States. But what care 
this slave democracy, for the constitution of the 
United States, where that stands in the way of 
the extension of human slavery ? Just nothing at 
all 1 And hence every nerve of this mis-begotten 
administration, is strained to uphold these uncon¬ 
stitutional and scandalous laws. The whole 
military force of the government, is put in requisi¬ 
tion by the slaA'e democracy, to dragoon the 
people of Kansas, into submission to these laAvs ; 
and men, good, and wise, and just men are to be 
tried by slave democratic judges and juries, and 
convicted and executed as traitors, for resistance 
to these laws, the forcible execution of which, is 
TREASON, and ought to subject the president, his 
cabinet, and all advising to their execution, to the 
trial, and sentence, and doom op traitors. 

Second amendment. —“ The right of the people 
‘ to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” 

In this amendment the same spirit op liberty 
is developed, as was so apparent in the preceding. 
The right to “keep and bear arms,” is thus guar¬ 
antied, in order that if the liberties of the people 
should be assailed, the means for their defence 
should be in their OAvn hands. 

But this right of the people of the United States, 
of which the free-state settlers of Kansas are a 
part, has been torn from them by the treasonable 
violence of this ill-starred administration, which 
is used as the mere pack-mule of the slave de¬ 
mocracy. 

Fourth amendment. —“ The right of the people 
‘ to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
‘ and effects, against unreasonable searches and 
‘ seizures, shall not be Auolated; and no warrants 
‘ shall issue but upon probable cause, supported 
‘ by oath or affirmation, and particularly de- 
‘ scribing the place to be searched, and the per- 
‘ sons or things to be seized.” 

In utter contempt of this clause of the consti¬ 
tution, this guilty administration, by its less 
guilty tools in Kansas, has been sacking cities, 
burning houses, and carrying desolation, murder, 
and rapine, over that fair territory. 

Fifth amendment. —“No person shall be de- 
‘ prhmd of life, liberty, or property, without due 
‘ process of laAV.” 

It should be always borne in mind, that the 
constitution of the United States was intended, 
first, to confer poAver on the government of the 
United States; second, to limit the poAver thus 
conferred; and third, to withdraw certain powers 
from the individual states. 

Nowhere in the constitution of the United States 
is the word “ slave ” used. Wherever in the con¬ 
stitution slaves are alluded to, or rather, are sup¬ 
posed to be alluded to, they are not named as 
slaves, but as persons, just as all the people, in¬ 
dividually, are included in the term “persons,”in 
the fifth amendment above quoted. Mr. Madison, 
called the father of the constitution, informs us 
|hat the banishment of the term slave" from 
the text of the constitution, Avas not the result of 
accident, but was done purposely, and Avith the 
intention of excluding the idea, that man can 
hold his fellow-man as property, the affirmative 
of which, would be implied in the term “ slave.” 







8 


Mr. Chairman, if the fraraerg of the constitu¬ 
tion cast the word, “ slave,” as a reprobate, out of 
the constitution, because its definition is “ a man 
held as property,” how dare our bogus democrats 
and slaveholders interpolate that venerated instru- 
ment.with the execrable term? No, sir ; the ar¬ 
gument is irresistible, that wherever the authority 
of the United States, in any of its departments, 
whether legislative, executive, or judicial, is in¬ 
voked to interfere against a “person” held as a 
slave by the laws of any state, the United States 
must treat such slave as a person ; and if such 
person’s “life, liberty, or property,” may be brought 
in jeopardy by authority of the United States, that 
“ person,” however humble, however bruised or 
trodden under foot by other states or other na¬ 
tions, is entitled to “ due process of law,” which, 
by the common consent of all—whether slave¬ 
holders, slave democrats, or republicans—is ad¬ 
mitted to be a “trial by jury, according to the 
course of the common law.” Thus, sir, the thrice- 
execrable “ fugitive slave law,” with its catchpole 
bevy of slave-hunting commissioners and deputy 
marshals, becomes a nullity and nuisance—the 
villanous concoction of slaveholding usurpation 
and doughfaced subserviency—and dissolves like 
stubble before the devouring fire. 

Now, sir, I flatter myself that I have vindicated 
the memory and the fame of our fathers who be¬ 
queathed to us a constitution based on justice—a 
union knit and held together by the gentle, genial, 
humanizing spirit of God-given, and God-honor¬ 
ing freedom. I have proven by facts and argu¬ 
ments which no sophistry can overthi'ow, that 
the spirit which created the constitution and the 
union, was the love of personal liberty under just 
and humane law. The same spirit which created 
must preserve the constitution and the union; 
but the spirit which has taken possession of the 
slaveholders, and their base tools, the slave de¬ 
mocracy of the free states, is the unclean spirit 
of slavery propagandism and perpetuation; and 
just as sure as animal life perishes in mephitic 
gases, so sure is it, that this" consitution and 
union vmst perish^ when smothered in the foul em¬ 
braces of these allies of human slavery. 

Mr. Chairman, I would respectfully ask of our 
union-saving physicians and craftsmen, whether 
in their opinion, the health of the union is im¬ 
proving under the slavery-extension nostrums 
which they have been administering to it now 
for some twenty years past?—whether their last 
dose of Nebraska bitters, bids fair to improve the 
health or prolong the life of their unhappy pa¬ 
tient? To me, sir, though I am no political doc¬ 
tor, and my opinion is therefore, of little value, 
I confess that the writhings and pantings of the 
patient, and the agitated and anxious counte¬ 
nances of the doctors and nurses, do not look like 
a favorable working of the medicines; and I 
would respectfully suggest a change of prescrip¬ 
tions. When you took your patient in hand, 
some twenty years ago, it was blessed with a ro¬ 
bust constitution, seemingly calculated to outlive 
all the quacks and grandames who had taken its 
cure in hand, and only needed to be wisely let 
alone, to outlive the years of Methuselah him¬ 
self. But you could not rest. You pronounced 


the union in danger, and again commenced ad- | 
ministering your doses of pro-slavery agitation, j 
In 1836 you “saved” the union by “Pinckney’s 
resolution.” That was by laying “ anti-slavery 
petitions on the table without reading or refer¬ 
ence.” You pronounced your patient “ cured”— 
still, to all but the doctors, it was now evidently 
made sick by your medicine. You nevertheless 
tried the same remedy in 1838, in another reso¬ 
lution of the same character. In 1842 you ad¬ 
ministered another pro-slavery dose, in the at¬ 
tempt to expel from the House, the venerable 
ex-president Adams, merely for presenting a pe¬ 
tition to congress. The union was thereby again 
saved, however; still, strange to say, it grew’ more 
and more feeble under these repeated salvations ; 
and again in 1843, you saved it by expelling from 
the House, my venerable friend and colleague, 
[Mr. Giddings,] for offering a resolution in re¬ 
spect to slave trading under the flag of the union. 
But, like all your past quackery, this also, only 
made bad worse. But the union made out to 
keep above ground until 1846, when it was again 
saved by the annexation of the slave state of 
Texas and the Mexican wmr, and in 1848, by the 
acquisition of the new slave territories of New 
Mexico and Utah, and by the exertions of Colo¬ 
nel Fremont, the free territory of California, ma¬ 
king of slave territory '724,000 square miles, and 
the free territory of California 188,000 square 
miles? At about the same time, you commenced 
depleting your patient by a treaty with Great 
Britain, and the cession to her Majesty of 5° 40'' 
of latitude and 26° of longitude, equal to ’7*74,000 
square miles of free territory, to which your slave¬ 
holding president had declared the title of the 
United States to be “ clear and unquestioned.” 
Still the union only grew worse, and in 1852, 
was again declared by the pro-slavery and slave¬ 
holding doctors, to be “ as good as dead.” So 
you called in both whig and democratic doctors 
to a consultation over your old patient, the union. 
The council of doctors were unanimously of the 
opinion, not only that the patient was very sick, 
but, in addition thereto, was badly wounded— 
having “seven bleeding wounds” which w’ere to 
be stanched at once, or the case was hopeless. 
As usual on those occasions, more concessions 
to slavery were prescribed ; California was gra¬ 
ciously permitted to come into the union as a 
free state; Texas was consigned to the dissect¬ 
ing room, to be cut into only five slave states ; and 
New Mexico and Utah were to be slave or free 
at their option. With this came a withdrawal 
of the slaveholders’ license to convert the Dis¬ 
trict of Columbia into a slave stable. But above 
all, this arrangement was declared final—was to 
be the very last dose of patent medicine to be 
administered—the “ all-healing ointment” for the 
convalescent union. 

But did the union recover on taking this dose 
of “ finality ” physic ? The doctors told us it was 
cured—that in this new ointment, of letting the 
slaveholders have their own way in the territo¬ 
ries, the union was restored—was “ good as new.” 
But, alas ! Mr. Chairman, however well it might 
fare with the union, the case was different with 
the doctors. In curing their patient, they killed 






9 


themselves—every mother’s son of them. But, 
again, alas for the poor union, and for the infalli¬ 
bility of political nostrum venders I in less than 
four years from this perfect, this “ final ” recovery, 
the union was found again in hysterics. There ' 
was discovered a dreadful “ tender spot” at the 
junction of the slave state of Missouri and the 
free territory of Kansas. The democratic fac¬ 
ulty of political quacks was hurriedly summoned. 
What in the world could be the matter with the 
union now ? Well, it was found by them to be 
dying of a poison called “ Missouri compromise,” 
administered by the doctors in charge of her in 
1820. This was the unanimous opinion of the 
doctors. The union, with that Missouri com¬ 
promise, had taken an over dose of freedom, and 
it must be extracted from her system, as the only 
and the infallible remedy. Yes, sir; the slave 
democracy have, for all the diseases of the union, 
one, and only one, remedy; and that is, to bleed 
her of every drop of freedom left in her veins. 
This, sir, is the course of surgery prescribed and 
administered by the democratic doctors for a 
union nursed in the lap, and nurtured at the 
bosom of fi'eedom! Feed her with more slavery, 
more slave states, more slave'territory; and, 
when you cease to have enough of these articles 
on hand, why, then, steal more from your neigh¬ 
bor nations, after the prescription of the Ostend 
conference of democratic doctors, of which Mr. 
Buchanan, the nominee of the slave democracy for 
the presidency, was the acknowledged head, and 
Mr. Soul^, of Louisiana, the fitting tail. Steal 
it, sir, with a relish. Go at it, sir, wolf and lamb 
fashion. Says the wolf, drinking in the stream, 
to the lamb, drinking in the same stream, below 
the wolf, “ Sir, if your drinking in the stream be¬ 
low me does seriously endanger the riling of the 
water where I am drinking, then, by every law, 
human and divine, I*shall be justified in wrest¬ 
ing you from the brook;” and, so saying, seizes 
and devours the lamb. Go at it wolf fashion, 0 
slave democracy, and take Cuba; it will be 
needed in a little Vhile as medicine for a union 
sick of too much freedom and too little slavery. 
Here is the warrant, sir, under the hands of your 
slave democratic casuists and candidate. 

“ Does Cuba in the possession of Spain seri- 
‘ ously endanger our internal peace and the exist- 
■ ence of our cherished union? Should this 
‘ question be answered in the affirmative, then by 
‘ every law, human and divine, we shall be jus- 
‘ tified in wresting it from Spain, if we possess the 
‘ power; and this upon the very same principle 
‘ that would justify an individual in tearing down 
‘ the burning house of his neighbor, if there were 
‘ no other means of preventing the flames from 
‘ destroying his own home. Under such circum- 
‘ stances, we ought neither to count the cost nor 
‘ regard the odds which Sj)ain might enlist against 
‘ us. We forbear to enter into the question, 

‘ whether the present condition of the island 
‘ would justify such a measure. We should, how- 
‘ ever, be recreant to our duty, be unworthy of our 
‘ gallant forefathers, and commit base treason 
• against our posterity, should we ])ermit Cuba to 
‘ be Africanized, and become a second St. Do- 
‘ mingo, with all its attendant horrors to the 


‘ white race, and suffer the flames to extend to our 
‘ own neighboring shores, serio\isly to endanger, 
‘ or actually to consume, the fair fabric of our 
‘ union. We hear that the course and current 
‘ of events are rapidly tending toward such a 
‘ catastrophe. * * * “ James Buchanan. 

“ John Y. Mason. 

“ PiEURE Soule. 

La Chapelle, October 18, 1854.” 

Oh yes, we will need Cuba ; we do need it now ; 
and Central America, why we shall need that by 
the time we can get it, and that will be as soon 
as Walker and his filibusters shall put slavery 
fairly under way there. Have it! wdiy not have 
it when such a doctor of divinity as “ Old Buck” 
says we are entitled to it by divine law ? There, 
Mr. Chairman, is your president, who will be his 
own chaplain, and do his own preying. 

But, Mr. Chairman, this is getting slightly, but 
no more than that, in advance of the “ wagon.” 
Let us return to the handiwork of the slave de¬ 
mocracy for the advent of another dispensation of 
harmony—another “ finality ” to succeed the old 
and worn out “finality” of 1850. The scrip¬ 
tures say, that the “sinner an hundred years 
old shall be accursed; ” but q, slave democratic 
“ finality ” is in as sad a plight, at four years old, 
as the sinner at “an hundred.” So they cursed 
their old “finality” of 1850, and introduced an¬ 
other in 1854, by the repeal of the Missouri com¬ 
promise ; which, in the short period of two years, 
has deserved and received more cursing, by friends 
and foes, than it of 1850, or all its predecessors 
put together. Indded, this last seems to have had 
a bad effect even according to the democratic doc¬ 
tors themselves, inasmuch as it was a surfeit of 
slavery, which has resulted in the “ black (re¬ 
publican) vomit.” 

But seriously, Mr. Chairman, what I have spo¬ 
ken ironically is nevertheless, not an unfaithful 
picture of our present condition as a nation, 
under the wicked and imbecile attempt of the slave¬ 
holders and the slave democracy, to strengthen 
the institutions of freedom, by nursing and feed¬ 
ing them on the garbage of human bondage. 
God knows, Mr. Chairman, that I desire, as ear¬ 
nestly as human nature can long for any earthly 
blessing, the perpetuity of the union of these 
states, just so long as the union shall subserve 
the ends for which our fathers formed it; but my 
convictions, that the accumulated perversions of 
those ends and objects, will if repeated, at no dis¬ 
tant period, subvert the union, are as strong and 
earnest as my desires for its perpetuity. Sir, I 
have no faith in the conservative efficacy of any¬ 
thing for states and nations, but the healing 
virtues of justice, truth, and liberty. 

Mr. Chairman, it was my design, before resu¬ 
ming my seat, to say something on the causes 
which have led to the disgraceful state of things 
in Kansas—a state so repugnant to every senti¬ 
ment of national pride, to say nothing of justice, 
peace, or even common decency? Sir, there is 
involved in these Kansas troubles, something low 
vulgar, dirty, savoring of the fish-market, on th€ 
part of the administration, mingled in tho causes 
and accomplishments of these shameful scenes— 
much, sir, of the low, disgusting arrogance of the 




10 


overseer, in his brutal efforts to subdue some re¬ 
fractory slave. “ We mean to subdue you,” is the 
ebullition of a vulgar nature, elevated by means 
of some “ villain service,” to an unexpected height; 
and it is the mingling of this base spirit with ex- 
exutive power in Kansas, which has been at the 
root of all these shameful scenes. 

But before going further on this subject, I wish 
to say a few words, sir, on this new-fangled doc¬ 
trine of squatter or popular sovereignty, as appli¬ 
cable to the promiscuous settlement of new ter¬ 
ritories, by slaveholders and persons opposed, 
either on conscientious, economical, or any other 
grounds, to the holding of slaves. As a simple 
question of statesmanship, waiving for the time, 
the moral question involved in the extension and 
perpetuity of slavery, no congregation of block¬ 
heads, ever committed a more egregious, or a more 
shallow blunder. Why, popular sovereignty im¬ 
plies, not only the rights but imposes the necessity for 
the most absolutely free discussion by the press, 
and by the exercise of perfect freedom of speech 
by the people. How can popular institutions be 
rightly established, without the exercise of those 
fundamental rights ? The negative of this ques¬ 
tion, strikes at the root of democratic institutions. 
The FREE STATE POPULAR Sovereign must have 
the same right to discuss the slaveholder’s right to 
his slave, as a moral, religious, and economical 
question, as he has to discuss the policy of in¬ 
corporating banks, granting city charters, or es¬ 
tablishing the legal height and strength of a di¬ 
vision fence. The moment this right is taken 
from him, that moment, he ceases to be a “pop¬ 
ular sovereign.” But slavery can bear no such 
discussion. The slave must not be told that he 
has, by the law of nature, the right to seek his 
own well-being in his own way, doing no harm 
to others—that he has a right to labor, and to 
receive, use, and dispose of the fruits of his labor— 
that his wife and children are his own, and not 
another’s. 

Sir, the single free state squatter sovereign, 
who is able to plant himself down in a terri¬ 
tory, and exercise these undoubted rights of 
squatter sovereignty, would, by this simple pro¬ 
cess of truth-telling, expel every slave and slave¬ 
holder from 100,000 square miles of territory. 
But the slaveholding squatter sovereign must 
be authorized to silence all such “ damnable 
heresies,” coming from his free state brother sov¬ 
ereign ; or slavery must slink away from the 
territories, like ghosts at the dawn of morning. 
But the statesmanship of the Nebraska bill is, 
to set free state squatter sovereign, against slave¬ 
holding squatter sovereign, contending for free¬ 
dom against slavery and slavery against freedom, 
in the territories, openly, with free speech and 
a free press. 

The slaveholders understand this perfectly; 
and hence, the inherent and fandamental right 
of freedom of speech and the press, does not, and 
cannot exist in slaveholding communities. This 
is a necessity of despotic governments, it is more 
than a necessity of despotism, it is in itself, the 
essence of despotism. And, sir, there is not a 
nore morbidly suspicious, cruel, revengeful, or 
'awless despotism on the face of the earth, than 


the nightmare of slavery, which has settled down 
upon the people of the slaveholding states, with 
the exception of perhaps two or three of these 
states. Why sir, there is more freedom of speech 
and of the press to-day, and more personal safety 
in the exercise of such freedom, at Vienna, St. Pe¬ 
tersburg, Paris, or Rome, in an attack and ex¬ 
posure of the despotism which reigns supreme 
over those cities, than there is at Richmond, 
Charleston, Milledgeville, or Mobile, to attack and 
expose the slaveholding despotisms which rule 
over these cities with a rod of iron. Sir, there 
are probably more citizens, born and nurtured in 
the slave states, now in exile from their native 
states for the exercise of freedom of speech and 
the press, against the despotism of slaveholding, 
than there are from Austria, Russia, France, or 
the Two Sicilies, for the exercise of the same 
rights, against the despotisms which crush those 
nations. 

Why, sir, free speech and a free press, would, in 
less than a decade, drive slavery from every 
slave state in the union. It would exclude sla¬ 
very from every territory belonging to the United 
States, in half .that time. This truth, the men of 
1820 saw clearly; and they saw that slavery and 
liberty could not dwell together on the same soil, 
that these two must separate or fight. They 
therefore drew a line of separation between 
them, and instantly their territori.^.! dissensions 
ceased. But the slave democracy of our times, 
could not rest, while a foot of soil was dedicated 
to freedom. So they threw down the bars which 
our fathers had raised between freedom and sla¬ 
very, and instantly, these two mortal foes are at 
each other’s throats, just as every sensible and 
honest man knew they must be. This is the 
finale of the squatter-sovereignty humbug, as a 
stroke of statesmanship; jlnd it is but another 
illustration of the maxim, that a child or a 
fool may destroy in an hour, what it required the 
wisdom and the labor of ages to construct. 

The great procuring cause of these troubles, 
we all know to have been, the repeal of the Mis- 
sruri compromise; and the cause of this repeal 
was, the lust of slavery propagandism, operating 
on mercenary northern politicians. But the ef¬ 
forts of the slave democracy, are now directed 
to the finding of some pretext by which, they 
may extricate themselves, by diverting the public 
attention to matters which may seem to impli¬ 
cate others. To accomplish this unworthy ob¬ 
ject, this slave democracy has made the Massa¬ 
chusetts emigrant aid society its “ harp of a 
thousand strings.” Venting execrations on this 
never-quieted ghost, constitutes the staple of the 
presidential proclamations and messages, as well 
as of all the harangues, tirades, speeches, and 
reports, of the slave democracy, in and out of 
congress. The president also, expresses his re¬ 
grets that Governor Reeder, in his Reading 
speech, had not dwelt “ a little more at large on 
the emigrant aid societies.” All the outrages of 
the Missouri borderers, their forays into Kansas, 
seizing ballot-boxes, expulsion of free-state voters 
from the ])olls, and from the territory; the elec¬ 
tion of a bogus legislature of Missourians by a 
Missouri mob ; the sacking and burning of Law- 



11 


rence; the disarming and expulsion of peaceful 
free-state settlers by United States troops, and 
the arrest, imprisonment, and nameless persecu¬ 
tions of innocent men for treason ; the arming 
of bands of lawless, worthless vagabonds, from 
the slave states, and enrolling them in the mili¬ 
tia of the territory, thus, under color of law, 
turning loose, to rob, murder, and ravish, without 
restraint—are all justified and charged over to 
the account of the emigrant aid society, for its 
audacity in presuming to grant free-state settlers 
fivcilities for entering the territory of Kansas. 
This action of that society, is the sole justifica¬ 
tion set up by all, from the president of the Uni¬ 
ted States, and grave senators, down, down, to 
the little “ we-mean-to-subdue-you” scrub ora¬ 
tor, commanding the advance guard of the free- 
state slave democracy. 

Sir, I make no apology for any exertions, however 
great, on the part of the people of the free states, or 
any one or more of them, to preoccupy Kansas with 
free-state settlers. Their fault or guilt in that 
regard, has not been excess, but the lack of exer¬ 
tion to ihat end. Why, sir, did the slaveholders 
and their sham democratic allies presume tliat all 
spirit, all devotion to the constitution and the 
union—nay, all-self respect, all manhood even, 
had so forsaken that people, that they would give 
up Kansas a prey to slavery, through the treach¬ 
ery of those whose special duty it was, to guard 
the interests of freedom, without availing them¬ 
selves of the poor and only chance left for liberty 
on that soil—the chance of outvoting the tools of 
slaverj^, by bona fide settlers from the free states ? 
Well, sir, if they did, it was their own folly. 
They had no reason to expect such pusillan¬ 
imity, such degradation from the sturdy and in¬ 
telligent yeomanry and mechanics of the free 
states, whatever they may have had reason to 
expect from such specimens of the cringing syco¬ 
phants and doughfaces as had wormed themselves 
into congress and the executive from those States. 
Nay, sir, they did not expect it. They anticipated 
competition from that quarter. They challenged 
and defied it. They reasoned in favor of their 
squatter-sovereignty humbug, by asserting the 
superior capabilities of the free states over the 
slave states, for the immediate occupancy of 
Kansas by free-state settlers. They taunted those 
of us, who were unwilling to remove this Mis¬ 
souri restriction, with hypocrisy on this very 
ground, viz : that on their squatter and popular 
sovereignty theory, the free states had greatly the 
advantage in the settlement of the territory, over 
the slave states. Some of them declared that 
they expected no advantage for slavery by the 
repeal. Thus Judge Butler, of South Carolina, 
(Senate, March 22, 1854 ; Appendix to Congres¬ 
sional Globe, first session Thirtv-tbird Congress, 
p. 292;) 

“ If two states should come into the union 
from them, (Kansas and Nebraska,) it is very 
‘ certain that not more than one of them could 
‘ in any possible event be a slaveholding state ; 

‘ and I have not the least idea that even one 
‘ would be.” 

‘‘As far as I am concerned, I must say that I 
‘ do not expect that this bill is to give us of the 


‘ south anything, but merely to accommodate 
‘ something like the sentiment of the south.” 

No, Mr. Chairman, it was, then, “ not to make 
a slave state of Kansas,” but to “ accommodate 
a southern sentiment,” to which the Missouri 
restriction was offensive. Oh, how gentle then ! 
The velvet foot-falls of the cat, before seizing her 
prey, were not more soft and unalarming. 

But, Mr. Chairman, notwithstanding all this 
seeming or real disinterestedness (I do not un¬ 
dertake to determine which) on the part of some 
of the southern men, there were others who did 
not vieAv it in that light at all. 

Mr. BfeLL, of Tennessee, (May 24, 1854, Ap¬ 
pendix, as above, page 939,) alluding to what 
had been stated in a caucus of the advocates of 
the repeal of the Missouri compromise, as to the 
effect of such repeal upon the entrance of slavery 
into the territories, says : 

“ But this broad principle of ‘ squatter sover- 
‘ eignty’ was not the idea on which the repeal 
‘ clause of this bill was inserted. I was assured 
‘then that the South had some interest in it; 

‘ that it would secure, practically, a slave terri- 
‘ tory west of Missouri; that slavery would go 
‘ into Kansas, when the restriction of 1820 was 
‘ removed. It was not dwelt on in argument; 

‘ but my honorable friend from Missouri knows 
‘ that that view was taken by him, [Atchison,] 
‘ and I differed from him in regard to it. I 
‘ thought slavery could not go there ; the honor- 
‘ able Senator thought it could. 

“ Mr. Atchison. And I think so still.” 

This debate, slight as are the glimpses it fur¬ 
nishes, still discloses enough to prove the eager 
covetings of the slaveholders for Kansas, and 
that they had already been “ led into tempta¬ 
tion” in relation to the question, how the terri¬ 
tories could be appropriated to the uses of sla¬ 
very ? It was tlien already the “ Naboth’s vine¬ 
yard” of the slaveholding section of the sham 
democracy, and they were then, casting about for 
the means of converting it to the use of slavery. 
“ Atchison thought it could be done,” though 
Bell doubted. At this conclave, he [Bell] “ was 
‘ assured that the South had some interest in it; 

‘ that it would secure, practically, a slave terri- 
‘ tory west of Missouri; that slavery would go 
‘ into Kansas, when the restriction of 1820 was 
‘ removed.” 

Who that reads that, can doubt that there had 
been, at that time, a matured conspiracy, of 
which Atchison was the presiding genius, to re¬ 
peal the restriction, and instantly to inundate 
Kansas with slave-breeding emigrants from Mis¬ 
souri ? No one can entertain a reasonable doubt, 
that the sham democrats in congress from the 
free states, were at that time, advertised of the 
existence of such a conspiracy, and had been in¬ 
structed by their leaders, the slaveholders, to 
attempt to convert their constituents to the new 
faith, that opening the territory of Kansas to the 
legal introduction of slaves, did not tend in the 
least, to make it a slave state; that the grand dis¬ 
covery of squatter sovereignty, would set all these 
things right, as by the power of magic. 

For this conspiracy, there was doubtless a pro¬ 
gramme, which subsequent developments indi- 





12 


cate to have been something after this wise : 
The Missouri restriction was to be repealed, un¬ 
der pretence of “ accommodating a southern sen¬ 
timent.” Southern gentlemen were to affect, not 
to seem anxious for the entrance of slavery into 
the territory, nor to anticipate any such result. 
The people of the free states were to be brought 
to jubilate over the new-born squatter-sover¬ 
eignty faith, as a charm or fetish which would 
thereafter forever, secure them against all farther 
political evil. In the mean time, Atchison was 
to organize the Cossacks of the Missouri borders, 
and take possession in the name of slavery and 
squatter sovereignty, before the free state lag¬ 
gards could draw on their boots. 

It was probably in view of this programme, 
or something in substance the same, that their 
ablest debaters in congress, were selected to 
open the fire upon the “ abolitionists,” as the 
opponents of the repeal were called by its advo¬ 
cates. This was commenced in gallant style by 
Mr. Breckinridge, the now democratic candidate 
for vice president. In that speech, the “ harp 
of a thousand strings,” “ squatter or popular sov¬ 
ereignty,” was played on by the great musician 
to the following tune : 

‘‘But, again, cannot the North, with her over- 
‘ whelming numbers, compete with us on these 
‘ new theatres in the race of settlement and civil- 
‘ ization, and must she not only violate the con- 
‘ stitution by shutting out half the states, com- 
‘ mon property holders with her ; but, in the 
‘ name of liberty, outrage liberty by erecting a 
‘ despotism over the territories ?” 

In the pamphlet edition of this speech, the 
question is put in this form: 

“ Cannot you, of the free states, on this theory 
‘ of ‘ popular sovereignty,’ compete successfully 
‘ with us of the slave states for supremacy in the 
‘ territoties—you, who have some fifteen rail- 
‘ lions of free population, while we, of the slave 
‘ states, have less than one half of that number ? 

‘ If you cannot, then what becomes of your boast- 
‘ ed superiority of free over slave institutions ?”— 
Globe Appendix^ first session Thirty-third CongresSj 
p. 442. 

This was the tune pitched by the “ chief musi¬ 
cian,” and was responded to by the whole choir 
of under-performers, as well in congress, and by 
the press, as on the stump. Sir, it was an open 
challenge to the intelligent, enterprising, and in¬ 
dustrious people of the free states, to enter the 
lists with the slave states, in the peaceful settle¬ 
ment of the territory, on the newly-discovered 
principle of “ squatter sovereignty.” By this it 
was implied, that there should be “ a fair field 
and no favor.” It was a distinct invitation to 
set free-state emigration against slave-state emi- 
graiion, in which fair play was due from each 
party towards the other, and when, at least on 
':he part of the free states, no unfairness was 
premeditated, and none anticipated from those 
ivho gave the challenge. No treacherous senator 
yas suspected as being on the ground, digging pit- 
alls, laying ambushments and assembling armed 
Dands to waylay, rob, murder, and drive back, 
ree-state settlers, who had honorably entered 
he lists in their own tournament of peaceful set¬ 


tlement. But the damning proof is out before 
the sun, that while gentlemen of the south, were 
giving out these invidious challenges on this floor, 
their colaborers, or at least one of them, in this 
sad work of breaking time-honored compacts, 
and he, at the time a member of the other house 
of congress, was playing foul with the very men 
who were attracted to Kansas, by these challenges 
of open and fair competition. It is sad, indeed, 
to suspect that this challenge was given with a 
knowledge, that successful competition in the 
peaceful settlement of Kansas, by free-state men, 
would be defeated by fraud, or repelled by force ; 
and yet the proof of the affirmative is almost ir¬ 
resistible. 

But the gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. Ste¬ 
phens,] the “ fiery Tybalt ” of slavery propagand- 
ism, was still more arrogant and defiant in the 
tone and temper of his challenges to free-state 
men, to try the efficacy of “ squatter sovereignty,” 
in the peaceful settlement of Kansas. 

Mr. Stephens, (February 27, 1854, pamphlet 
edition of speech printed at office of Sentinel^ 
Washington, District of Columbia, page 11,) 
speaking of the prospect of a free state being 
made out of Kansas, says : 

“ Why should you not be willing to remove 
‘ this question forever from Congress, and leave 
‘ it to the people of the Territories, according to 
‘ the compromise of 1850? You have greatly the 
‘ advantage of us in population. The white popu- 
‘ lation of the United States is now over twenty 
‘ millions. Of this number, the free states have 
‘ over two to one, compared with the south. 

‘ There are only a little over three million slaves. 

“ If immigration into the territories, therefore, 

‘ should be assumed to go on in the ratio of popula- 
‘ tion, we must suppose that there would be near 
‘ seven white persons to one slave at least, and of 
‘ the seven, two from the free states, to one from 
‘ the south. With such an advantage, are you 
‘ afraid to trust this question with your own peo- 
‘ pie—men reared under the influence of your own 
‘ boasted superior institutions ? With all the 
‘ prejudices of birth and education against us, 

‘ are you afra,id to let them judge for themselves? 

‘ Are your ‘free-born sons, who never breathed 
‘ the tainted air of slavery,’ such nincompoops, 

‘ that they cannot be trusted out, without their 
‘ mothers’ leave ? ” 

Mr. Chairman, this is not only a challenge to the 
people of the free states, to enter the lists with 
the slave states, in the settlement of Kansas, but 
it is a challenge couched in the language of con¬ 
tempt and defiance. Its tone and manner were a 
warning to all free-state men, that the repeal of 
the Missouri compromise, was then, a foregone 
conclusion ; and that if Kansas was rescued from 
the doom of slavery, it must be by taking up the 
glove thus insolently thrown in their faces. Com¬ 
paring the achievements, hitherto, of the two sec¬ 
tions of country—the slave and the free—in the 
successful settlement of new states, it was as 
rash as it was insolent. 

The haughty, confident, and even defiant tone 
assumed by the south towards free-state men, in 
relation to the settlement of Kansas, was then a 
mystery. It seemed at the lime, wholly gratui- 






13 


tons ; but the disclosures of the organization of 1 
secret associations by the slaveholders on the 
borders of the territory, in connection with the 
machinations of the then vice president in the 
same quarter, constitute more than a suspicion, 
they amount to a strong presumptive evidence, 
that the purpose of repealing the compromise, 
and of making Kansas a slave state, were con¬ 
ceived simultaneously, as events inseparably con¬ 
nected, and to be accomplished at every hazard. 
They prove further, that the shallow and delusive 
notion of “squatter sovereignty,” was held up 
merely to gull a set of shallow, bigoted, and reck¬ 
less partisans in the free states, as mackerel are 
caught with red rags. 

In this view of the case, I ask honest men, 
north and south, were not these challenges, these 
taunts, this contempt and insolence, sufficient 
provocation to put the people of the free states to 
their mettle—those of them, I mean, who prefer 
freedom to slavery ? Was it wrong in them—nay, 
was it not right—nay, was it not a duty which 
they owed to their principles, (if they had any,) 
to prove themselves no “ nincompoops,” to use the 
select phrase of the gentleman from Georgia; but 
to show themselves equal at least, in intelligence, 
energy, enterprise, and wealth, to the slaveholders 
who hud thus insultingly challenged them to the 
trial? Why, sir, emigrant aid societies, as agen¬ 
cies for the colonization of new and distant 
countries, are as natural a result of superior 
wealth, intelligence, and enterprise, as railroads 
and steamboats are evidence of enterprise, wealth, 
and skill, superior to those which had only ad¬ 
vanced to the invention of the hand-barrow, 
'liorse-cart, and flat-boat. Sir, the slave democ¬ 
racy, northern or southern, might as reasonably 
denounce free-state emigrants to Kansas, lor not 
making tlieir journeys thither, in mule-drawn 
wagons or scow-boats, instead of journeying by 
steamboats and railways, as for availing them¬ 
selves of the superior advantages olfered by emi¬ 
grant aid societies. 

Nevertheless, there has not'been an utterance 
from those hostile to freedom in Kansas, from the 
leviathans pitjmy giants of the slave democracy 
in the other end of the capitol, to the president and 
his cabinet, at the other end of the avenue; or 
from the guests of the grog-shops, or even the 
street loafers, the purpose of which has not been 
to conceal or justify their breach of the nation’s 
plighted faith, and to shelter themselves from 
the storm of public odium and contempt, for their 
treason to the constitution and laws of their coun¬ 
try, as well as to their own professed principles 
of “ squatt('r sovereignty,” by cursing the “New 
England emigrant aid society,” by “ bell, book, 
and candle.” The slave democratic press, at the 
four cardinal and all intermediate points of the 
compass, has groaned with these execrations. 

But when thus insultingly challenged to prove 
their superiority in wealth, intelligence, and cn- 
• terprise, (if they possessed them,) by taking an 
even ciiance with the slave states in the peace¬ 
ful colonization of Kansas; and when fairly 
beaten in the trial, as the slave states have been, 
it is not only unreasonable, but it is infamous, to 
turn upon their successful competitors, and charge 
them with foul play; and not only so, but to re¬ 


sort themselves to the foulest, most infamous, and 
treasonable measures, to recover what they had 
lost in the field of open and fair competition. And, 
sir, I charge the slave democracy with all the mis¬ 
chiefs (and God knows they are but too numer¬ 
ous) Avhich have already resulted, and which, in 
the dark and stormy future, may result, from 
this shameless breach of public faith, in the re¬ 
peal of the Missouri compromise, in order to force 
the institution of slavery on territory dedicated 
to freedom for more than the third of a century. 
Sir, to talk of acquiescence now, in this breach 
of plighted faith ; and this still more aggravated 
offence of expelling, by the army of the United 
States, pqaceable and innocent emigrants to a 
territory to which the slave democracy had in¬ 
vited them, is a manifestation of weakness and 
cowardice which must and will, onlj^ invite re¬ 
newed aggressions. In point of morals, it is as 
culpable, and in point of policy, more imbecile if 
possible, than that which threw open the territo¬ 
ries to the influx of slavery. 

A few words in conlusion, iffr. Chairman, to 
those political adventurers, patriots, doughfaces, 
or what not, from the free states, wlio at this 
day, attach themselves to the fortunes of the slave 
democracy, or to slavery propagandists of any 
school. 1 w'ould very respectfully ask of those 
gentlemen, whether, as a political investment, 
l>arring wear and tear of conscience, the business 
of extending human slavery, and cribbing and 
confining human liberty, has not, of late, been 
rather overdone by the rush of political adven¬ 
turers into this field of speculation ?—whether the 
compensation is adequate to the excessive labor 
required in this kind of service? Formerly, be¬ 
fore slavery extension became the main business 
of the holders of office in the government, the pres¬ 
ident and his cabinet might hold out sound and 
strong for at least eight years, and subordinate 
officers indefinitely. Ilut now, since the extension 
of slavery into free territory, has become almost 
the sole business of the officers of the federal 
government, from the president downwards, so 
excessive and exhausting is the service exacted 
of its servants by the slave democracy, that in 
one or two years at the longest, these officers be¬ 
come so Avorn down and fagged out, that the 
people arc as anxious to be rid of them, as a 
cleanly housewife would be, to be clear of a 
gang of strolling beggars, infected with measles, 
small-pox, or vermin. 

Mr. Chairman, mankind in general intuitively 
despise traitors. They do this, even though they 
may love the treason, or its fruits. This, sir, is 
a law of our moral nature, all-pervading, and in¬ 
dispensable in the present condition of humanity. 
This law of our moral being, addressing itself to 
one of the most poAverful affections of our na¬ 
ture, the love of approbation, serves as one of 
the strongest checks from universal treachery 
to those, to Avhom Ave are under moral obliga¬ 
tions alone. So strong is the hold which this 
hiAV takes of men, controlled by no “ higher laAV,” 
that when the traitor returns to receive applause 
from those who reap the fruits of his treason, the 
applause he covets, is often turned to loathing 
and unsuppressed disgust. Milton, sir, Avith his 
luxuriant imagination, has described the force of 






14 


this sentiment, in his description of the reception 
of Satan by his subject fiends, on his return from 
the ruin of our first parents. 

Satan is described as addressing, with regal 
pomp, the infernal sanhedrim, and giving them 
a narration of his adventures in paradise, and 
his triumph, and its consequ.ents at some unset 
future period: 

“ T am to bruise his heel; 

His seed {iohen is not set) shall bruise my head. 

A world, who would not purchase with a bruise, 

Or much more grievous pain? Ye have ih’ account 
Of my performance: what remains, ye gods,— 

But lip, and enter now into full bliss? 

So having said, awhile he stood expecting 
Their universal shout and high applause 
To fill his ear; when, contrary, he hears 
On all sides, from innumerable tongues, * 

A dismal, universal hiss, the sound 
Of public scorn.” 

-‘‘Thus was til’ applause they meant 

Turned to exploding hiss, triumph to shame. 

Cast on themst Ives from their own mouths.” 

It seems to me, sir, that if gentlemen from the 
free states, who have been candidates or aspirants 
for the presidency, or who may become such 
; hereafter, would reflect a little upon the fortunes 
of those who have tried the experiment, cannot 
but be convinced, that a too eager subserviency 
to the interests of the slavery extensionists, is not 
the surest guarantee of success. Such subservi- 
' ency is treachery to the interests of the people of 
1 the free states, and the people of those states 
] see and understand this much more clearly than 
, those time-servers and tricksters imagine. No 
, man at the north, however great his administra- 
1 tive talent, or however triumphant his popularity 
- for the time, can be guilty of an open betrayal of 
] the interest of freedom on any pretence however 
1 plausible, without a ruinous blow to his popu- 
, larity with his free-state constituency. There 
are too many common schools, too many news- 
. papers read, too many intelligent and well-read 

1 / 

] 

1 




‘t 

t 

i 

i 

tr 

i 

j 

i 

i 

h 

r» 

i- 


men among the laboring masses, not to render a 
double-dealing and ruinous policy on the ques¬ 
tion of slavery extension, fatal to the aspirations 
of such politicians. The living wrecks of such 
navigators, are too numerously strewed along the 
beach of the political sea, not to be a warning to 
the whole crew, officers as well as mariners. It 
would be discourteous in me to name them; but 
I would invite you to run over, in your mind, the 
number of such unfortunates since'1844, inclu¬ 
sive. The task of Sisyphus was a hard one; but 
the task of a dough-face, seeking the presidency, 
is little, if any less onerous. If he makes shift 
to roll his stone up the slave-state side of the 
hill, down it rolls on the free-state side ; and so 
vice versa. 

If his truckling to the slave power, has fitted 
him for the uses of the slavery propagandists, he 
is ruined with the friends of freedom; and if 
ruined with these, the slaveholders cannot use 
him, however much they may desire to do so. 
This is now the case with the present incumbent 
of the presidential office. It is the case with 
every prominent free-state aspirant to that office 
in the ranks of the slave democracy, or of the 
national Americans, as they ironically style them¬ 
selves ; and “ killed by an over dose of slavery 
propagandism,” may be justly written over the 
political grave of each of them, as a most truth¬ 
ful and appropriate epitaph. Let all politicians 
of uncracked reputation in the free states, be 
warned by these examples, and remember the re¬ 
ception of Satan, even among his own fallen crew ; 
for the reception of the pro-slavery politician of 
the free states, with his slaveholding friends, is as 
real an ordination of Providence, in the course 
of nature, as are the hisses with which Satan was 
received by his fallen crew, according to the 
paintings of the poet’s imagination, in the special 
awards of Divine justice. 









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CIRCULATE THE DOCUMENTS 


Tlie Republican Association of Washington City, in order to afford every 
facility for a profuse distribution of documents during the campaign, have made 
extensive arrangements for publishing speeches and documents Livoring the prin¬ 
ciples of the Republican Party, and will furnish them to individuals, or clubs, at 
the bare cost of publication. , 

The following is a list of those already published; and, being stereotyped, we 
are enabled to supply any number of copies‘‘at short notice: 

List of Documents already published, and which will be kept for sale till the end of the Campaign. 


Poor Whites of the Soutli —Weston. 

Will the South Dissolve llte Union?—We 
The Federal Union, it must he Freser 
Southern Slavery reduce.s Northern 
Who art* Sectional?—We.--ton 
Review of the Kan.sas Minority H 
man. 

Reason.s for .loinin? the Reinthiican Pan 
Kansa.s Cotitesied KlecticMi.— Hon. J. A. Jiii., 

Admission oi'lCa.nsas.— lion. (i. A. Grow, 

CollaiTier'.s Rejtort and So^e^h in favor of F 
Con<liiutiim for Ivansa-. 

Kansas Atfairs.— lion. H. 

Defence of Kansas—Rev. Henry Ward B-echer. 

Defence oMassachnselts.— Hon A Burlinsj.anje. 
PrivileiTe of the Representative, Privilege of the People.— 
flon. J R. Giddiiirts. 

Democratic Ptiriy as it Was and as it Is —Hon. T. C. Day. 
The Hnmhng an i the Reality —Hon. T. <L Day. 

Blair's lAMter to the Republican Association. 

The Slavery Ciuesiion.— Hon .1. Allison. 

.Slavery Unconstitutional.—Hon. A. P. Granger. 

At ;5l.2o per luO copies, free of postage. 

Ivansas in l8o6: A co'n()lete History'of the Outrages in 
Kansa.s not embraced in the Kansas Pomm tteehs Re¬ 
port.— By an Olricer of tlie Commission 
Immediate Admission of Kansa.*;—Hon. W. H Seward. 
Admission of Kaiuas, and the Political Fifects of Siave- 
rv.— Hon. I i Benn»'tt. 

Alfairs in Kansas.— Hon. H Trumhnll. 

Wrong.s of Kanstis—Hon. J. P. Hale. 

Admission of Kansas.— Hon B F. Whide. 

State of Allairs in K.insas—Hon. H. Wilson. 

Admissi m of Knnsas.- Hon. James Harlan. 

'Pile ‘-Jiaws” uf Kansa.s.—Hon. Schuyler Colfax. 
Organi/.aiioii of the Free State Government in Kau.-as. 

and Inaug-nral Addrr-ss of Governor Robinson. 
Plymouth (Jratioii.— Hon. W H Seward 
The Dangers of F.xlcnding Slavery, and The Coitte.st and 
the Crisis; two Siree.dies in one pamithlcl.—Hon. \Vh 
H. Seward. 

Politics of the Country.—Hon. Israel Waslihurn. 
Complaints of tlie FiXten.sionists ; their Falsity'. — Hon. 
IMiilemon Bliss. 

The Slavery Question—Hon. hdward Wade. 
Extravagant Plxpenditures.— Hon. Ball. 


Freedom National. Slaveiy Sectional.—Hon, J. J. Perry. 
The Army of the United States not to be Idmitloyed as a 
Police, to Enforce the Laws of the Conquerors of Kaii- 
"V. H. Seward. 

jcracy ” the Ally of Slavery.— Hon. i\!. W. 

per 100 copies, free of postage. 

me against Kansas—Hon. Charles Sumner, 
eport of the Kansa.s Investignting Commiliee. 
life of Fremont; illustrated. 


The Nebraska (^ue.stiou. containing the Speeches of Doug¬ 
las. Chase. Smith, Everett, Wade, Badger, Seward, and 
Sumner togedier wiih the History of the Missouri 
Compromise, &e. Price ;2() cents, free «t'postage. 

Political Map ot'ihe United States, designed to exhibit the 
comparative areti of the Free, and Slave States, at d the 
Territory open to Slavery by' the Repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise. With a compari-soii of the principal Sta¬ 
tistics of the P^ree aud Slave Sltiies, from the Census of 
1.850. Highly Colored. Price ;?0 cents, free of postage. 

Killing of Keating, an address of Irishmen of \\'’ashingion 
City to tlie Ciiitiens of the United Slates. I’rice sFI per 
100, free of po.«tage. 


I/I the Germa/i Language. 

Crime against Kansas. — Hon. Charles Sumner. Price 
S?2.50 per 100. 

Life of Fremont, illustrated. Price S'2.50 per 100. 

The “Laws” of Kansas.— Hon. Sehnyler Colfax. Price 
SI 25 per 100. 

The Dangers of Ivxtending Slavery'.—Hon. IV. II. Seward. 
Price SI per 100. 

The Conte.st amt the Cri-is.—W. H Sevvard. Price SL'-^^a 
per 100. 

The Immediate Admission of Kansas.—Hon. W. H. Sew¬ 
ard Price SI .25 per JOO. 

Address of the National Republican Committee. Price 
SL25 per 100. 

Francis P. Biair's Letter t > the Republican Association. 
Price 02 cents per 100. 

Slavery Unconstitutionah—Hon. A. P. Granger. Price 
02 cents per JOO 

Poor hiles of the Souih. — G. M. Weston. Price 62 
cents jier 100. 

Report of the Kansas Investigating Committee. Price 
S2,50 per 100. 


At 62 cents per 100 copies, free of postage, j 


A liberal discount is made from the above prices when ordered by the 
thousand copies. Address 

L. CLEPHANE, 

Secretary^ Washington,^ D. G. 

' W46 








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